Simplex Trading reduced its stake in Nio by 38.95% in the fourth quarter, while sharply cutting its options positions in the Chinese premium EV maker, according to a regulatory filing published Wednesday.
Nio‘s US-listed shares peaked at $66.99 in January 2021 as the company’s founder and CEO unveiled the first model of the second-generation vehicle platform while teasing the expansion to the US before the end of 2025.
The rally, which also lifted Chinese rivals XPeng and Li Auto to record highs, came amid an EV bubble that briefly pushed newly public Rivian and Lucid past Ford and General Motors in market value.
None of the six NEV startups has approached those peaks in the last five years, while Tesla hit a fresh all-time high last December.
Simplex x Nio
Simplex held 659,692 Nio shares valued at $3.36 million as of December 31, down from approximately 1.08 million shares at the end of September.
The market maker had nearly doubled its stake in the third quarter of the year after having dumped nearly all shares exactly a year ago.
The third quarter of 2023 marked the ownership peak with nearly 2 million shares.
The Chicago-based firm also slashed its call options by 3.58% to 9,741,900 contracts worth $49.68 million, and cut its put options by 36.6% to 4,383,000 contracts valued at $22.35 million.
The reductions came as Nio shares fell 34% in the fourth quarter, closing at $5.04 on December 31 compared with $7.62 on September 30.
Other Institutions
While Simplex trimmed its position, several major institutions increased their Nio holdings in the fourth quarter.
Goldman Sachs raised its position by 57.8% to 14,367,913 shares, currently valued at $72.8 million.
BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings by 16.2% to 21,619,358 shares worth $109.6 million, making it the third-largest institutional holder as of Thursday morning.
Sellers
UBS Group continued to reduce its Nio exposure, cutting its stake by 14.7% to more than 24.5 million shares valued at $124.5 million.
The Swiss bank had slashed its position by 59% in the prior quarter.
WT Asset Management, one of Asia’s largest hedge funds, sold 6,039,704 shares in the fourth quarter — a 32.4% reduction — ending the year with 12,611,190 shares worth $63.9 million.
The Hong Kong and Beijing-based firm had only returned to the stock in the third quarter after a three-year absence.
Institutional Ownership
Nio now has 483 institutional holders collectively owning 324.4 million shares, Nasdaq data showed as of Thursday morning.
The figure represents a continued recovery from mid-2025, when institutional ownership had fallen below 200 million shares — down more than 61% from its peak of nearly 600 million shares in early 2022.
Aspex Management, Jane Street Group, Morgan Stanley, D.E. Shaw, and several other major holders have not yet reported their fourth-quarter portfolio updates as of Thursday morning.
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund CYVN Holdings remains Nio‘s largest overall shareholder with a 21.7% stake, built through $2.94 billion in investments completed in 2023.
Nio shares were trading 1.0% lower at $5.02 as of press time during Thursday’s pre-market sesion.
